After his recent arrest in Zurich, Switzerland, stemming from a 31 year old unlawful sex case that lead to his flight from the U.S., filmmaker Roman Polanski is challenging Swiss authorities’ bid to extradite him back to the United States.
“[Mr.Polanski] is in a fighting mood,” his French lawyer, Herve Temime, said in a statement yesterday, part of which was published by Variety late yesterday claiming the Swiss detention is illegitimate. “We have begun by requesting his release. After that, his defense team will demonstrate the illegal nature of the extradition request he is facing. There is no legal reason based on the facts or the most basic principles of justice to keep Roman Polanski in prison for even a single day.”
According to The Hollywood Reporter, it’s up to the federal Swiss court to decide whether or not to grant bail, but a spokesman said bail is usually only “granted exceptionally.”
Meanwhile, Polanski’s detention has evidently delayed his 2010 political thriller, “The Ghost,” starring Ewan McGregor, Pierce Brosnan, Olivia Williams and others, which chronicles a writer who is selected to ghost-write the memoirs of a British Prime Minister (a thinly-veiled Tony Blair type) but uncovers some dark secrets along the way. Apparently the film is still in the post-production stage and needs further editing, music and sound work and will now be on hold until the legal matter is settled.
Perhaps illustrating cultural differences about forgiveness and the vast cultural views on this case, Europeans have shown outrage at the filmmaker’s arrest on his way to Zurich film festival tribute in his name. Former French president Francois Mitterand has come to the filmmakers defense asking was he “thrown to the lions because of ancient history?” Polanski has resided in France ever since his 1978 flight from the U.S. and he retains Polish and French dual citizenship. Several Foreign minsters, including those of Poland and France, have written U.S. Minister of Culture Hilary Clinton in hopes of dissuading the U.S. from pushing for extradition.
According to Variety, the U.S. now has up to 60 days to formalize an expatriation request following his arrest.
Polanski’s Wikipedia page has been the subject of recent vandalism, and the page surprising does not appear to have been subsequently locked (though any libelous and aspersive comments seem to have been since removed; actually this report says the page is locked).
Morally, Polanski’s crimes against a 13-year-old girl are indefensible, but at this point the matter is a legal one and an entire different ball of wax and this is where it all gets sticky and very complex. What really is at the heart of the matter appears not to be the unlawful sex case (which Polanski already served a 42-day psychiatric evaluation as per the judges orders), but the flight from the U.S. which has made the director a fugitive from the U.S. ever since.
Much of this case coming back into the public light occurred last year. After watching the documentary, “Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired,” Polanski’s attorney Douglas Dalton, said former prosecutor David Wells’ self-described contacts with the judge in the film appeared to violate California law and legal ethics. In July 2008, Dalton asked the Los Angeles district attorney’s office to review the Marina Zenovich-directed doc in which the former deputy district attorney (Wells) essentially claimed to have coached the now-deceased judge in the case (though Wells vehemently denied this).
Many U.S. legal experts believe the recent arrest could lead to a resolution that will allow him to once again travel freely. ”I think he will finally get his day in court,” criminal defense attorney Steve Cron told the New York Times, ”and there’s a good chance his case will be dismissed or the sentence will be commuted to time served.”
Others feels his refusal to surrender himself earlier this year at the behest of the L.A. prosecutors who seemed very willing to review his case could complicate matters. ”The big issue is whether it would have been better for him to negotiate a surrender when he had the chance,” Loyola University law professor Laurie Levenson told the Times. ”Now it has become an international incident and the district attorney may be under pressure not to negotiate a sweetheart deal. They’ve gone to all this trouble of getting Switzerland involved. It could make it harder on him.”
It sounds like things are not going well for him.
Looks like he's finally gonna get to return to the USA to make movies!
Things are looking up for him.
He'll be released by the Swiss Courts, I guarantee you. This story is not playing the same way AT ALL in France/Switzerland as it is here in America. No one is calling for Polanski's head there. They're shocked that the Swiss have done this.
People, there are FUCKING PRESIDENTS and FOREIGN MINISTERS defending Polanski in France.
These people are public officials as well. They are held accountable by their own people, not by FOX NEWS. Being the lap dog for American "justice" does not play well at all in Europe.
The high court in Switzerland will review the case and ultimately determine some fault with the charges against Polanski and/or the extradition request itself and he'll be sent back to France.
You people are fooling yourselves if you think Polanski will ever be sent back to the US, much less serve any real time in prison.
He may never leave France again though, for what it's worth.
I've tried to remain editorially neutral in the reporting, because i don't want another rush of imbecilic fucknuts on my doorstep (that you know who crowd), but A Baby Named Jesus is pretty much exactly right.
However, I'm not 100% convinced of his convictions that the Swiss courts will release him at least not immediately. I mean, it's likely they will, but yes, I doubt he will ever see even an afternoon of U.S. jailtime, unless he's willing to concede to coming to the U.S. to clear up matters.
But it's already gotten ugly enough between his attorneys and the L.A. District dept so that's probably not going to happen.
But he's exactly right about how the way it's playing over there.
Essentially, this has been one of the only pragmatic and knowing comments posted in the Polanski threads so far.
You know what? 70% of the people in France polled by Le Figaro said that they think Polanski should face justice for his crimes. Donald Tusk, the Polish Prime Minister, criticised his Foreign Minister for urging the director’s freedom. Same goes for the regular population of Switzerland.
So let's not make assumptions about how this is going down across the world.
And please, let's also not mislead anyone by saying that doing 42 days of psychiatric evaluation have anything to do with the actual sentencing in this case.
Uh Racquel,
Do you have a link for that poll? Because i've been searching twenty minutes for it and have not found any such poll. Was it an online poll? If so, that's completely worthless.
The only thing I found was an article in Le Figaro called, "What ever happened to Swiss neutrality?" Yves Thread, a writer for the French paper, writes about vast "Euro-American cultural divide" and then spends the remainder of the article writing about the outrage this has caused in France and Poland.
Face it, he won't do any real time.
What you don't understand or acknowledge is that Roman Polanski is NOT AN AMERICAN! He isn't an American living in exile in Europe for his past misdeeds. He was born in France and raised in Poland. He is a dual French-Pole citizen. He is European. If you honestly believe that any European court will send A EUROPEAN CITIZEN (born and raised) into a kangeroo court over a 30+ year indiscretion because the US morality police (to use Yves Thread's phrase) want him to face charges here, than you must be smoking something.
They're sending him back to France.
The court has announced that it will rule in a "few weeks." Expect Polanski to be freed around then.
Yes, you are absolutely right that it was an online pool – I took that information from this article: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/30/movies/30polanski.html
And if you read what I wrote, I never said what I thought would happen to him, just that the majority of the population in this country isn't exactly as outraged at this arrest as you might think they are.
I, personally, don't think anything is going to come out of this case. Even if he does get sent back to America, I doubt that this will ammount to anything more than a fine – people are right in saying that there were legal issues in how this was handled 30 years ago, and based on that it will most likely be dismissed.
I have no problem with anyone pointing out the legal issues and expecting a favorable outcome on his behalf based on that.
What I do have a problem is: 1 – people trying to whitewash what he actually did, either out of misinformation, simple, good old victim blaming, or using the argument that he is "such a great artist" and 2 – people trying to turn him into some sort of victim, a poor little man trying to escape "the US morality police". C'mon now.
And to clarify a few things I read in here before: a. Yes, he was charged with rape (not just statutory rape either, as the Polanski apologists and revisionsts are trying to make this out to be) – but he pled guilty to a lesser charge based on a deal made with the prosecution and b. While those 42 days spent in psychiatric evaluation were indeed supposed to count towards his full sentence according to his deal, he hadn't actually been formally sentenced yet.
Like I said before, I have no problem with people who expect him to go free due to the legal issues once due proccess is done (which is what I think will happen, if not sooner), but why would anyone be surprised, let alone outraged, by the fact that he actually has to face those issues in a court of law like anyone else would have to, no matter how long it has been?
It makes me sick that people are sticking up for this guy. I was listening to Sean Haniity the other day and people where calling in left and right to let him go. Because it was over fourty years ago. Jsutice needs to be served. This is one sick man. Just think if someone did that to your 13 year daughter.